Martin Johnson has lived in New York City since arriving in 1978 to study at Columbia University. He is currently a freelance journalist who has had his work published in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Jazz Times and other publications. He has also been a longtime cheesemonger and is currently Shop Manager at 67 Gourmet, a new cheese and charcuterie outlet on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Martin and host Michael Whidden go back as friends more than ten years, spending most of that time teaching classes together about cheese and wine at the 92nd Street Y.
We cover, among other things:
*Martin’s path from Chicago’s South Side to New York City and into journalism
*a great story about him and musician Jennifer Hudson
*the homogenization of content because of PR-driven, corporate-controlled press engagements
*the story behind “Rie, get your gun!”
*the American artisanal cheese scene
*the story of local craft brewing in New York City
Martin finds hope in their determination to have an interesting, well-integrated life, even if it means the road to success is no longer about climbing a mountain but scaling the side of a building without any equipment.